Dear friends and neighbors,
Please join us in breathing a collective sigh of relief. For the past thirteen days, our community has been intently watching as law enforcement tracked down an escaped convict just outside of Kennett Square. Like many of you, those of us on the Kennett Collaborative team have experienced a range of emotions as the saga has unfolded in our backyard. We’re grateful for law enforcement for safely recovering the inmate and recognize the difficulty that entailed working long hours and under intense circumstances.
For a quiet community like ours in Chester County, this experience has been unusual to say the least! I want to acknowledge how unsettling it can be to see danger in familiar spaces. Our beautiful parks, gardens, and other natural spaces are more often where we go to experience peace and sanctuary from a busy world. It’s unsettling to see these places as the backdrop of a search for a fugitive.
Kennett Square, at the heart of the Brandywine Valley, is a safe community. The very fact that this experience has felt so out of place has reminded me of that. I have also taken great comfort in the way we have all come together to check in on each other, share information online, and look out for one another. We are resilient, and it’s a real privilege to live and work here!
After two weeks of uncertainty, I hope you will come back out into Kennett Square to dine, shop, walk around, and meet up with friends and neighbors. Please join us September 21 for Third Thursday, and of course don’t wait to get your tickets for Kennett Brewfest on October 7 because they will sell out!
Kennett is a special place, and I am happy to be sharing it with all of you. See you soon!
Daniel Embree
Executive Director
Kennett Collaborative
